Expertises

Psychopathology of schizophrenia, more specifically the nature and course of subjective experience in patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder. This issue involves also a basic phenomenological research concerning the structure of consciousness; Empathy and interpersonal and social relations. The expertise also includes epidemological and genetic studies of vulnerability to schizophrenia. Our research group has formulated a novel theory of schizophrenia as a disorder of selfhood and developed an interview-instrument, which elicits different manifestation of the underlying self-disorder.

Main research areas

Interdisciplinary research between the psychopathology, neuroscience and philosophy targeting subjective experience in psychiatric disorders. This approach has many singular specific ramifications, such as the issue of diagnosis; understanding of the patient; the nature of psychiatric interview and assessment; and most importantly theoretical foundations of psychiatry.

Current research

The role of self-disorders in the evolution of schizophrenia; therapeutic application of the self-disorder approach; neurophysiological correlates of disorders of subjectivity in schizophrenia; the nature of sociality in schizophrenia; differential diagnosis between obsessions and obsessive-like phenomena; and the validity of the concept of borderline personality disorder.

Potential conflicts of interest

None